


A Second Chance

by Ispeakmanx



Category: Tuck Everlasting - Miller/Tysen/Shear & Federle, Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, tuck everlasting - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 09:17:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12105543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ispeakmanx/pseuds/Ispeakmanx
Summary: when Jesse returns to tree gap, eight years after Winnie has died, he meets her now seventeen year old granddaughter, Mae.





	A Second Chance

Jesse’s P.O.V.  
I can’t wait to see Miles again, and obviously my parents, but there will always be something different about Tree Gap, something that wasn’t there before. I haven’t seen nor spoken to Winnie since that day, all those years ago, when I saw her and that guy Hugo from when that man in yellow found out about the spring. She was so young then, too young to understand the beauty and magic of age, a number that will always go up, much less the horror of being forever lonely. Her time with us had been a mere taste of what life for us was truly like, and her conversations with my family, though they helped her understand somewhat, she never really knew.  
I know she’s gone now, and I know I will never speak to her again. But I also saw, in a newspaper, that her son and his wife have a daughter, I don’t remember how long ago I read that, could have been last week could have been 30 years ago, time all blends together, but I know she exists. Whether or not I want to meet her, I don’t know, but I know I can never speak of our secret, nor of how I know who she is or relate to her. I will just have to visit the cabin, and drink from the spring, and leave. Whatever happens, I will have peace knowing Winnie truly led a happy life.

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Mae’s POV  
I love these woods, my Grandmother spoke of them as a second home, though I did find it rather peculiar that she always referred to them as he, as if they were a person. She would talk of “his” chiseled features, “his” playfulness, “his” love for adventure, and how “he” took her in one August. I, after years of hearing her talk this way of the wood, began to think of it as a person myself. She left me her music box, which plays a tale of dancing fairies, of love and friendship, and of course, of the wood. On the days I miss her most, I will sit in the wood, in a tree, in a small clearing. Usually that is all I need, but today, today I need to run. Father was drafted 2 years ago, but this morning Mother and I received a telegram saying that he was missing. He had disappeared while on a classified assignment in Japan and his commander offered no further explanation. The telegram warned that we should prepare for the worst. So, I began to run.  
And that’s where I am now. Running, running fast and hard to nowhere. But, my legs have carried me further than I have ever gone before, into a part of the wood I have yet to explore. 

******************************************************************************

3rd person  
Winnie died years ago, 8 to be exact. When young Mae was only 9. Mae, now 17, was named such because her father had heard his mother speak of her love for the name, which he did not know had connections to a family he didn’t know existed named the Tucks. Anyway, Mae is running, running, running, as far and fast as she can, when she stumbles into a clearing. Tired, she sits at the base of an ash tree, so tall she could have sworn it had lived for a thousand years. She opened up the one thing she had brought with her, the music box her grandmother had left her in her will. The music soothed her a little, but there was no true consolation which could help her. She was stuck in her thoughts, wishing beyond hope she could go and find her father, go and save him from the war, yet knowing there was no chance of that happening. She was listening to the music, melody intertwining with the harmonies of the forest creating a symphony, and as she was sitting there, she heard the sound of a bubbling spring.  
As Mae cries, Jesse is walking along a path that he knew so well, even though it had not been used in over 30 years, when he hears the sound of a music box, coming from where the clearing is. He smiles, knowing his mother is already at the tree, waiting for him, when he remembers that his mother had given the music box to Winnie all those years ago. He breaks into a run, and then a sprint as he gets closer to the spring and the music gets louder. He wonders, as he tares down the path, if Winnie did drink, and is still alive, but only for a moment as he remembers his one friend, and how his heart shattered the day he saw her gravestone. Jesse is only moments away from the clearing when Mae, oblivious to the springs power, leans over to drink. He clatters into the clearing, and sees a girl leaned over the tree, hands cupped, filled with water, at her lips, and screams “NO!!!!” The girl, startled, drops the water and looks around. She sees Jesse, standing there, sheet white, and starts to fume. She storms up to him and yells back, “WHO ARE YOU TO STOP ME FROM DRINKING FROM A SPRING IF I AM THIRSTY”  
Jesse, shakingly responds, “please, please tell me you didn’t drink the water, please just answer truthfully and this can all be behind us.”  
“Maybe a drop , but nothing more before i was so rudely interrupted, why?” Mae says as she watches Jesse start to pace back and forth and mutter to himself, starting to worry about her safety being alone with this strange boy. She catches a few of his words, hearing strange things like, “maybe Pa will know what to do,” “why didn’t I get here sooner,” and something about a girl named Winnie and a music box. That is when Mae decided to speak up. She said to him, “Well while you are starting to freak me out a bit, I also think I just hears you say something about a music box, and about a girl named Winnie, are you speaking of my Grandmother? It was her who gave this music box to me, she said for me to play its song when I needed it most, and it sounds like you need it now.”  
Jesse pauses for a moment when he hears her say Grandmother, and suddenly everything clicks into place. He looks down at her, suddenly seeing the resemblance and says “ Are you Mae?”  
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Mae’s POV  
I couldn’t believe it when he asked me, “Are you Mae” as he had no way of knowing who I was, yet it seemed, as he studied my face, he knew exactly who I was. I looked up, into his eyes, searching for something that I knew, but he said before I could speak again, in a hushed tone, “I knew your grandmother, Winnie, well.  
I laughed and said “but you’re only a teenager, maybe 17, just as I am by the looks of it, how could you have known my grandmother? I’ve never seen you before yet I lived with my grandmother until she died 8 years ago.” I laughed, but I was actually frightened beyond words, as well as confused. The boy had a wistful look on his face which vanished as I again leaned over and tried to drink from the spring. He again shouted, “No!”  
Then once more, “NO” this time more sternly, and I looked again at him, with the question of why again on my lips, when he asked me to sit down, away from the spring and listen for a minute. I of course was still confused, but in light of his claim of knowing my grandmother, I did as he said. “Did you drink?” He said, even more seriously than before, more seriously than I thought would be possible from a boy that looked the age he does. I saw real worry in his face, written in the way his eyebrows were scrunched together and his eyes themselves were looking everywhere, as if debating the possibilities that could occur. I knew the answer of course, I had swallowed a few drops before he scared me nearly half to death. I didn’t know then what it meant, I was still blissfully unaware of the problems that tiny drop or two of water would cost me. I told him what I knew to be true.  
“Yes.”  
“Yes?”  
“Yes I did swallow a few drops of water, I think.”  
“Well there is only one way to find out, for absolute certain. Do you trust me?”  
“Should I?”  
“Yes.”  
“Then yes, what need I do, to find out what you seem to think is important?”  
“Climb this tree with me, than, when we get to the top, we will jump of, landing right here, on the ground, without a scratch. If you did swallow the water, we’ll be fine. Trust me.”  
“Ok you are crazy”  
“No really, I swear I’m not, here, I’ll show you.”  
So as I stood there, in this clearing in Tree Gap Wood, Tree Gap, New Hampshire, watching this boy of about 17 climb a tree, that was when I realized I hadn’t learned his name, though he knew mine. I called to him, “Wait, before you do anything crazy, what is your name?”  
“Jesse,” he called down, “and I’ll be down to tell you more about me in a minute.”  
As he climbed higher and higher, past branches that could barely hold his weight, i started to worry about this crazy boy who showed up in my wood, a place I’ve always known, all of a sudden. That’s when he jumped, he, as I was watching, dumbstruck, leaped from a branch and soared through the air for a moment before gravity yanked him to the ground. He landed in a crumpled heap, and for a moment didn’t move. I screamed “Jesse!” And ran as fast as I could towards him, when he stood up, dusted himself off, and said, “huh, I hovered for longer than usual in air that time.”  
That was when I punched him. I punched him right in the face, as he had terrified me over and over again, but the punch, instead of hurting him, or my hand, felt as though I were punching a bit of rubber or putty or something. I recoiled, and looked again into his eyes, more scared and confused than I had ever been in my life.  
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Jesse’s POV  
So she just punched me, right in the nose, before I could explain what the spring does, not good. She just saw herself striking me with all her force, attacking me, and me standing here, unfazed. Not good. I don't think I can wait for Ma and Pa to explain the water too her, I guess I have to do it.  
“Did Winnie ever say anything about these woods, Mae?” I asked, wondering how far back I needed to start.  
“No, but she did say to be careful whenever here, and she also always referred to them as he, as in ‘he took me in one summer, he was amazing,’ and things like that.”  
That was when I fell. I crumpled to the ground, surprised by Winnie's view of me, and of life. She decided it was worth it to ride the wheel, and eventually fall off, but she still remembered us, she didn’t write us off as a dream, nor a story for her children or grandchildren, she did reminis, but not sadly, she loved us for showing her magic. I was speechless, for the first time since I saw her grave. Speechless. I started to cry, memories of my short time with Winnie flooding my senses, I could almost taste the cotton candy we shared. I flashed back, my past, for the first time in my long life, catching up with me. I blacked out.

**Author's Note:**

> So if you like or read pls let me know this is my first published pic so yeah i really love this book (and musical) so happy tucking!


End file.
